Norway Data Shows Earth’s Global Warming Less Severe Than Feared

Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- New estimates from a Norwegian
research project show meeting targets for minimizing global
warming may be more achievable than previously thought.

After the planet’s average surface temperature rose through
the 1990s, the increase has almost leveled off at the level of
2000, while ocean water temperature has also stabilized, the
Research Council of Norway said in a statement on its website.
After applying data from the past decade, the results showed
temperatures may rise 1.9 degrees Celsius if Co2 levels double
by 2050, below the 3 degrees predicted by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change.

“The Earth’s mean temperature rose sharply during the
1990s,” said Terje Berntsen, a professor at the University of
Oslo who worked on the study. “This may have caused us to
overestimate climate sensitivity.”

The findings also show the effect of reduced airborne
particulates from burning coal, which may decrease the cloud
cover that cools the earth, probably has less of an impact on
climate through indirect cooling than originally projected.